Pokémon Z: Rebooted!
by Ssb3Goku
Summary: What if Ash had a role model to look up to, how could such a simple change alter the journey of a young man? Ash doesn't want to become a pokémon master, he wants to become the strongest trainer that ever was and will ever be! (A remake of my old story, Pokémon Z)
1. A Journey Begins

**Well, this story is back. I deleted it a awhile back because i just felt unsatisfied with it but im reviving this beast from the dead.**

 **in case you don't know the premise from the original, this story is about Ash having a role model in his early years, that model is Goku from Dragon Ball! before anyone comments, No Goku will not appear, merely the franchises exists in this world like it does in our world. So only references to the show will appear, that's why this story isn't marked under crossover. I was inspired by another fanfic which i can't remember the name of, it was a Naruto crossover that had Naruto discovering the dragon ball Z manga and trying to literally become Goku, while Ash is merely inspired by him.**

 **with that outta of the way, here comes the warnings!**

 **Pokémon belongs to Gamefreak and Dragon Ball belongs to Toriyama, my lord and savior! I own and profit nothing from these franchises**

 **-Chapter Starts-**

"Can't you just leave me at home with Mr. Mime?" Ash whined out to his mother, the eight year old pouting his lips at her with the best puppy dog eyes he could muster, trying to pull his hand away from her ironclad grip she had over it. Anything would be better than the place of torture she was dragging him to.

Delia sighed at the antics of her son, he was sometimes too energetic and youthful for his own good, and her own. "Last time I left you with Mr. Mime while I went book shopping, I found you in Oak's lab covered in pokemon food and being chased by a snorlax," she reprimanded him, she still couldn't fathom how that situation happened, something to do with Ash trying to feed the ranch's pokemon. How he got into the locked foodshed still mystified Oak to this day. "It will be ten minutes sweetie, I just need to a few books for my book club next week. If your good, I'll ask Mrs. Green to bring Leaf along so the two of you can play together," she offered with a smile, she was hosting next week's club meeting and was sure Kan would love to bring her daughter for a play date.

Ash's face puckered up at the mentioning of 'that' incident, like he took a bite from a raw lemon, it wasn't even his fault entirely. Gary unlocked the shed for him and pushed him into the pokémon's feeding trough after he put the food in. His best friend has been acting really mean spirited lately, this wasn't his first prank and surely not the last. His face noticeably brighten at her second comment, a play date with Leaf? "Okay! I'll be good!" he enthusiastically said, ten minutes of boredom was well worth getting an entire afternoon with his only girl friend in the entire town of Pallet.

Delia smiled at that, she was sure Kan would enjoy the reprise herself. After walking down the dirt road for another two minutes, they finally arrived at the bookstore, 'Oak's favourite bookstore' sign hung proudly in the window. "Oh Philip, you're the only bookstore in town, hehe," the woman giggled softly, it seemed like every store in Pallet town wanted Oak's seal of approval. To be fair, he was the biggest celebrity in the entire town, she did enjoy his pokémon poetry from time to time.

The duo walked inside, the ringing of a bell notifying the owner at the desk of their entry. "Ah! Delia, and Ash! Good to see you, book club right?" the aging man said with a knowing smile on his face, the man was older than Delia, the tips of his blonde hair turning grey and his hairline partially rescinding. "Kan came by near half hour ago. Martha half hour before that, your club sure is clockwork, haha! Aisle three near the back and isle seven near the front, oh and I got some new cook books you might be interested in, aisle six," Philip pointed out, lifting his arms and pointing them out to her, already knowing what books she wanted from serving the rest of her club.

Delia's gleamed at the comment of new cook books, she was always looking to try out new recipes, and her son very much enjoyed being her taste tester. She looked down at her son and gave him a pat on the head. "Stay in the store, alright?" she asked, getting a nod in return from her son, she walked into the aisles of books disappearing from sight from Ash and Philip.

Ash kicked at the floor and looked at the door, it was very tempting to leave and head to Oak's lab. _No… I'll get in trouble and I'll won't be able to play with Leaf._ He thought with an annoyed sigh, he needed to find something else to do here until his mom came back. He turned to look at Philip with a hopeful look. "Is Henry here?" he asked curiously, they weren't friends per se, he was a bit too much of a bookworm for his personal liking, but at least it was someone his age he could talk to.

Philip gave him a sympathetic smile with the shake of his head, dashing the child's hope. "He's at home with his mother," he explained to the suddenly downtrodden boy, obviously the lad was disappointed at the lack of activity. "Why don't you head over to the kids section and read a book for awhile?" he suggested, pointing out the far more colorful area of his shop, meant for younger children.

Ash listened to the suggestion and pouted. "I'm eight years old! Those books are for babies!" the boy whined, he was too old for those kinda books now, his mom read those to him when he could barely stand on his feet.

Philip sighed at the boy response, it was a fair point. His kids section were meant for those five and younger, the boy certainly out grew them and probably heard them all anyways. He put his right elbow on the counter and rested his chin on the palm of his hand, thinking of something to entertain Ash. He needed something visually appealing, blocks of words would bore the child quickly, but also something more age appropriate than a picture book. His eyes widen when the metaphorical light bulb went off in his head. "I got something in from Viridian city just last week that you might like. I'll be right back," the man quickly got up and walked towards a door a few meters behind his counter, opening the door and disappearing from the young boy's sight.

Ash looked at the door Philip disappeared behind, did he have a book that the boy would actually like? The eight year old had his doubts.

Only a minute later, Philip returned with a stack of… books? They were very small, the aging man easily carrying four of them with just one hand. He placed the book on the desk and grabbed the top one, offering it to the young boy who grabbed it, noticing it didn't have a hardcover like the majority of books. "Give this one a shot," the owner told him, having a knowing smile that the boy would like it.

Ash looked down to look at the cover, noticing it had really colorful artwork on it, definitely catching his attention than any book before! _Dragon Ball Z? Sounds fun._ The title seemed alright to him. He opened it up and his eyes widened, their were pictures! Not the very simplistic pictures those picture books he had before, detailed and the character looked cool! Better yet, few words! The words were just for talking, the pictures showing the emotion and the state of individual instead of having to explain everything in words. The boys eyes were glued on the pages, flipping through them at a quick pace but never missing a detail of what was happening in the page. This was the best book ever!

Philip chuckled has the boy read silently the manga, it seemed he finally found a book the boy could appreciate! He's sure his mother will appreciate it as well.

Delia hummed delightfully to herself, both hands occupied by carrying four different books, has she headed to the counter to pay for her books. She certainly -Has some would say- hit paydirt with the cookbooks, she found a book on Alolan cooking and recipes, she was certainly gonna try them soon! Her happy mood however shifted to worry, she took longer than promised by carefully scrutinizing all the cookbooks in the store, what was suppose to take only ten minutes took half an hour. Despite that, her son hadn't come whining to her about her taking too long, has he would usually do. Not hearing a peep from him concerned her.

 _Did he leave the store?! Oh if I find him, I'm gonna give him-_ Her thoughts of punishment were cut off, the cash now insight and her son with it, making the woman let out relieved sigh. She walked towards him but something caught her attention about him, more accurately what the boy was holding in his hands. **_Is that… a book?! And he's enjoying himself!_** She had to stop in her tracks and perform a double take, not believing what her eyes were seeing. Indeed, her son was reading a book and had a wide smile on his face, a staunch contrast to his usual grumpy look when he's forced to study.

Delia lifted her right hand and pinched her left, believing herself still in bed. " **Ouch!!!** " she let out a pained yelp, looking down at her left hand and rubbing her the now aching hand tentatively, nope this was very much real. She looked back up and noticed her son looking at her concerned, seeing her in pain. She offered him a reassuring smile and made her way up to him, placing her books on the counter beside the cash register. Not noticing Philip around at the moment, she looked down at her son curious. "What book is that, sweetie?" she asked him curious, from what she could make out, it had many nice pictures in it.

Ash smiled at her question and in response closed the book, revealing the cover to her. "It's called Dragon Ball Z! I already read five books, Philip went to get more for me to read! It's so exciting to read!" the boy gushed about the book, wrapping his little arms around it and holding close to his chest. "I wanna be like Goku! He works really hard and gets stronger to fight strong bad guys! He even cooler than Lance!" Ash boasted excitedly, he'd rather wear a gi than a cape any day!

Delia's eyebrows shot up high at how much he read, the books were quite small and mostly filled with pictures, but she could hardly get him to read for five minutes, let alone a whole half hour. She opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by gentle thud, catching her attention.

Philip returned with a stack of the same thin books, already grabbing the top one to give to Ash but noticed Delia. "Oh, Delia? You found the books. I was just giving Ash something to read until you came back, he's taken quite the liking to it," he explained chuckling, holding the book in his hands up high preventing Ash's small reaching fingers from grabbing it. "I got hundred of these things from Viridian, I can barely believe a single brand can have so many books," he put the book on top of the stack, grabbing one of Delia's books and entering the price into the cash register.

"We'll take all of them!" Ash announced, shocking both adults at the claim, more so by the serious look on his face. "I wanna know how Goku beats Vegeta!" he whined, looking down at the floor and kicking it softly, he couldn't be left on a cliffhanger like that.

Delia placed a finger on her chin, a thought brewing in her mind. "I'll buy you five of these books now, and another five next week. But! You have to do more chores around the house, like you said, your hero works hard to get stronger so you need to too," she offered, it would be great to have him actually help around the house, poor Mr. Mime was getting overworked to the bone.

Ash looked up at her and gave her the widest smile the woman had ever seen. "I will! I'll work hard and get stronger like Goku, when I'm a trainer, me and my pokémon are gonna work hard together! We'll be the strongest in the world!" he boasted, lifting his tiny arms high, just imaging him and his future pokémon training together, beating Lance and every other champion!

Delia smiled at the fire that lit up in her son, reminded her so much of her husband. She looked up and gave a nod to Philip, who simply nodded in return and added the books into her order. The blonde put the books into plastic bag and handed it to Ash's mother Delia handing him the money and letting him keep the change. He somehow got her son to read, he certainly earned the tip. She grasped her son's hand in one hand with the other occupied by her bags, and she walked out the front door, her son's eager eyes watching the bouncing bags.

Delia stood in front of a stove, the smell of cooking food circulated throughout the house has she hummed a tune. The sound of the toaster going off caught the brunette's attention, four slices of toast bread sticking out of the machine. She moved away from the pan of scrambled eggs and removed the bread from the toaster, placing them on large stack of toast resting on a plate, the stack nearly a dozen slices tall. With the toast done, she returned to the stove, grabbing her spatula and quickly turning several sausages on a separate pain, making sure they were evenly cooked.

 _Today is my baby boy's biggest day! He needs a hearty breakfast before starting his journey!_ Delia thought determinedly, picking up the sausages with her spatula and placing them on a nearby plate, a large mound of them already in place. With the sausages finished, she focused on the scrambled eggs, the last part of the large breakfast she was making. She looked up at the clock near the door, she had about ten minutes before her son usually arrived from his milk delivery runs. That gave her time to think.

 _So much has changed in the past five years._ Delia thought, it was almost yesterday that her son found his new interest, though it has evolved into a secondary obsession by this point. Her son hadn't changed much personality wise, he was still has youthful and energetic as he was when he was little, but that energy was used more productively than before. Her little boy actually went through with his promise, he did more chores around the house, tidied up his room -to an extent, at least it was navigable now-, helped with the laundry, and even helped her in the kitchen. At first he was more a burden in that department, but after enough trial and error he became quite the handy helper, he could even cook his own meals now!

It wasn't just at home where the changes could be found. That Dragon Ball Franchise her boy loved was more massive than she originally believed, a tv series, movies, action figures, posters, the list went on, and her son wanted all of it! Obviously, she couldn't afford so much unnecessary things, but her son always found a way to get what he wanted. He did odd jobs around Pallet town, from delivering MooMoo milk in the morning, helping out at Oaks lab, to name a few of the jobs he did around town to make extra money. This extra cash went to martial arts classes that her son took liking to, obviously to mimic that orange wearing hero of his. Even his grades improved in school! He went from a steady D minus student to a C and C plus student! It was better than nothing, he still didn't exactly enjoy reading most forms of literature, let alone a textbook.

She let out a content sigh, lifting up the pan and scraping off the scrambled eggs onto a waiting plate, the plate barely able to hold the sheer mass of the food on it. She was knocked out of her thoughts by the sound of the door opening, followed by thud, like someone dropped something on the floor. "Ash! How many times have I told you to put the milk containers outside?" she chastised the figure, already knowing who it was.

Her son walked into the kitchen, a glass bottle of milk in hand, the distinct milktank label on the front with the words 'MooMoolicious Milk' surrounding the pokémon. "Sorry, Mom! I'm just so excited for today! Loving the outfit you made for me!" Ash announced, placing down the bottle of milk in the center of the set table for two. With his hands free, he patted down his outfit and gave the woman a view of her work, it was quite the challenge hiding it from him.

The boy wore an orange and black jacket, the upper half being predominantly orange, except for a black pokéball design on the right breast, the lower half being mostly black, with only the entrances of the pockets being orange, the sleeves followed this pattern, every above the elbow was orange and below the elbow was black. Underneath the jacket was a plain white shirt. On his hands were orange fingerless gloves with black trimmings, matching the jacket. On his head was a brand new hat she bought, solid orange in the middle of it with ends being black, a another black pokéball symbol in the middle of the orange. He wore brand new blue jeans and new black running shoes with orange designs on them, finishing off the look.

Delia chuckled at his excitement, quite glad he was happy with her work, he was quite the handsome thirteen year old. She grabbed each plate of food and placed it on the table, toast, scrambled eggs, sausages, and even pancakes, in enough quantity to feed a family of six. Or this case, to feed one very hungry teenager. "I'm glad you like it, dear! I packed two more sets in your traveling bag. Now let's eat up, you only got a half hour before you need to be at the lab," she told him with a smile, taking a seat at the table and feeling her plate with a moderate amount of food, waiting for her coffee to be finished.

Ash nodded eagerly at that and quickly took a seat opposite her, filling his plate to absolute brim, a few sausages rolling off his plate and onto the wooden table. The teen quickly stabbed his fork through the escapees, raising the fork to his mouth and finishing off the sausages in two bites. He uncorked the milk bottle and poured the white liquid into a nearby cup, swallowing his food in the meantime. "Is Oak alright?" he asked his mother suddenly, grabbing a fork full of scrambled eggs and shoveling it into his mouth before grabbing two slices of bread.

Delia was taking a bite of her toast when he asked her, surprising the woman at the question, had something happened to the aging professor? She finished taking the bite of her toast and got up from the table, hearing the pinging of her coffee machine. She walked over to the cover and placed a coffee mug underneath the machine, the dark liquid slowly pouring into the cup. She swallowed before refocusing on her son. "I wouldn't know, something happened?" she asked back, seemed odd he'd be worrying about the professor so early in the morning.

Ash swallowed what he had in his mouth, taking a swig of his milk to make the process more smooth, before explaining. "He wasn't waiting for his milk today, he's always there when I arrive," he explained, the old man was always there waiting for his delivery, offering Ash some cookies and to come inside for a break, he always declined but always took a cookie or two for the road. Now that he thought about it, there was another question on his mind. "By the way, where'd you go last night? I heard you leave the house," he asked her intrigued, his mom rarely left the house at night, preferring to snuggle up with a blanket and reading a book or watching her favourite late night shows.

Delia gave her son a knowing look at his second question. "You heard that? Didn't you say you were going to bed early so you could be ready for today?" she fired back taking a calm sip of her coffee, seems her son stayed up late last night.

Ash blushed at getting caught, he didn't think things through when asking that question. "Okay… I stayed up past midnight to watch finals of the Unova league, it's not my fault for time differences. I didn't wake up late or anything..." he mumbled quietly the last part, stabbing a single sausage with his fork and shoving it into his mouth, chewing slowly. He swallowed before pointing his fork at her accusingly. "Okay, I fessed up but you haven't!" he fired back, she still hadn't answered his question.

Delia chuckled at the accusing utensil pointed at her, it seemed her son was quite adamant on knowing where she went last night. "Oh, I just went to have a late night chat with Oak is all," she explained with a shrug of her shoulder, remembering that conversation she had with him about a concern she had.

 _Delia rang the doorbell to Oak's lab, that doubled has his home, gently tapping her heeled foot on the stone steps has she waited. Soon enough, the door to the lab opened revealing the renowned professor, the elderly man wearing grey pajamas and toothbrush in his hands. Seemed he was readying to go to bed._

 _"Delia? Is that you?" The professor asked with a surprised look, though it quickly morphed to a smile at his former assistant. "It's good to see you my dear. But what brings you here at this hour? I was about to hit the hay myself, but you could probably already tell," the old man let out a chuckle at that._

 _Delia didn't join in the laughter, she had her objective and she was sticking to it. "I just came here to remind you, I know you can be forgetful at times," she explained why she was here, her statement catching Oak off guard by her no nonsense attitude she was taking with him._

 _"Remind me of what my dear?" Oak asked, placing his unoccupied hand underneath his chin and rubbing it in confusion, what could she mean by that? What could he possibly be forgetting about?_

 _Delia sighed at that, it seemed he was clueless about what was going to happen tomorrow or maybe he actually was prepared, but she doubted. "Tomorrow, four young inspiring trainers are going to arrive here to receive their starters and start their journeys, one of them my son. Its tradition to have three start_ _er pokémon, and that's the problem," she took a step forward, the distance between her and the professor disappearing in a second, the woman jabbing a finger into his chest. "My son wouldn't mind not getting a traditional starter, the boy would be satisfied to get a magikarp. But I won't be," she explained, the eyes of the professor widening in realization of what she meant, his facial expression letting her know that he didn't get four starters._

 _"If my son steps out of this lab with a pokémon that you caught in a single morning has his starter, you can consider yourself uninvited from eating at my home. For life," She warned him, removing her finger from his chest and crossing her arms, taking a few steps back. Oak frequently ate dinner at the Ketchum household and loved her cooking, she knew losing that privilege would devastate the professor._

 _Oak was shocked at the ultimatum his former assistant threw at him, her cooking was the envy of Pallet town, once you've tried it, there was no going back. "Me forget? My dear, I'm one of the top minds in pokémon research! All the trainers will have unique starters, even if_ _they aren't traditional ones. Me forget… such a joker you are, haha…" the professor let out an awkward and unconvincing laugh, his eyes darting to the nearby video phone in his lab. "Anyway… thanks for stopping by Delia, good chatting with you! I need to make a few phone calls, you know how it is! Goodnight!" the aging professor said with strained smile, quickly closing the door and speeding off to the video phone, rapidly hitting keys for the number of the closest pokémon league approved breeding facility._

 _Delia let out a genuine chuckle has the professor disappeared, she turned around and slowly made her way down the stone steps, her work was done so time to head home. He was probably gonna be up all night making phone calls._

She chuckled to herself at that memory, getting a raised eyebrow from her son at not getting what was funny, who simply ignored it and returned scarfing down has much good as he could into his mouth. With his questioning done, Delia returned to her seat and started to eat as well, but at far slower pace than her son.

It took only fifteen minutes for the entire meal to be finish, Ash patting his full stomach and letting out a content sigh, he was going to miss his mother's meals. He got up from the chair and looked at the clock, ten minutes until he was suppose to meet with the others at the front of Oak's lab. "I'm heading out, Mom! Don't forget to bring my bag, I know you're gonna check it anyway!" the teen announced, speeding out the door and jumping over the steps of the porch, placing one hand on the fence gate before leaping over it, landing on the dirt road that went through the entire town of Pallet. He gave one more wave at his house before running down the road.

 _I wonder what pokémon I'm gonna get?! Bulbasaur learns a lot of utility moves, Squirtle got some good defense with that shell of his, or maybe the future powerhouse that is charmander! Or the mystery fourth pokémon?!_ Ash thought excitedly, waving at the townspeople he ran by, most knowing him due to his milk delivery. The young teen was gravitating towards the mystery choice. Sure, he didn't know what he was getting and it wasn't bas safe as picking the traditional ones, but he was a risk taker and, isn't that what a trainer needs to be? He wasn't going to break new ground by sticking to the safe and assured strategies, you had to take those risks to break stalemates in a battle.

Ash's thoughts on that matter ended when Oak's lab came into sight, a familiar sight and almost a second home to him, Oak being a surrogate grandfather for him in his youth. At the top of the steps, were three figures that he knew all too well. "Leaf, Henry! Gary…" the boy shouted reaching the bottom of the steps, getting noticeably quieter at acknowledging his former friend and now rival, he already was bracing himself for flurry of insults. He quickly reached the top and took a seat of the wooden fence that surrounded the lab's porch. "You guys excited for this?! We start our pokémon journeys today!" he told them excitedly, a wide grin splitting his face has he thought about what pokémon he was going to catch.

Leaf returned the grin, glad that her friend had finally joined them, she was getting tired of Gary by his mere arrogant boastings of becoming the youngest Kanto champion. "I'm excited too. I wonder what pokémon we're gonna get? I'm even more curious about that fourth pokémon, I've been asking around but not even his assistants know," she placed a delicate finger on her cheek and closing her eyes, trying to visualize what the mystery pokémon could be. "Which one are you going to pick, Ash?" she asked him, opening her eyes to look at him curiously, her friend can be a wild card at times, she honestly had no idea what he would choose.

Ash opened his mouth to respond but was cut off.

"Doesn't matter what pokémon he chooses, a pokémon is only as good as their trainer. And we all know Ashy is the dunce of Pallet town!" Gary cut in, letting out an arrogant chortle at his insult, only getting a glare from Ash and exasperated sighs from everyone else. "I'm honestly impressed Ashy boy, you somehow passed your trainer license exam. I thought the written portion would stop you dead in your tracks, but I'm thankful that it didn't. So I can smack you and your pokémon around personally!" the brunette wrapped one hand around his stomach has another round of laughter kicked off, like his stomach was hurting from how much he was laughing.

Ash was fuming at his arrogant rival, he was insufferable to be around for everyone in this group, even when they weren't on the receiving end of his verbal assaults. The raven haired teen glared but didn't say anything, he knew no matter what he said, Gary will twist it around somehow. Ash beat him in martial arts and actually scored higher than the brunette in the practical portion of the trainer exam, but he'd simply say he was just some meathead or whatever. The only way he can deflate that ballooned ego of his rival was with a pokémon battle, soon enough he'll get his shot to do just that.

Before Gary could continue throw insults, much to relief of everyone else present, the door to the lab opened revealing the aging professor. "Good morning children… ready to receive your partners?" Oak asked tiredly, noticeable bags could be found under his eyes and his eyes were slightly bloodshot, under his lab coat was grey pajamas instead of his usual attire and he even had slippers on, it looked like the old man didn't get a lick of sleep last night. Before anyone could mention the state of the professor, he walked into his lab and gestured for everyone to follow inside.

The group looked at each other mildly confused but merely shrug their shoulders, following the professor into the lab. Their were greeted by a large amount of machinery and flickering lights, a number of desks scattered around for Oak and his various assistants. Strangely, one of the desks had its video phone receiver hanging loosely on the side of the desk, seems someone forgot to put it back in place. Leaf and Henry were amazed by all the equipment, neither used to seeing the advance technology being used by the lab, while Ash and Gary were far more casual, both of them spending plenty of time around the lab. Though neither of the two boys knew what most of the machines actually did, the brunette would argue otherwise however.

The group kept following the professor until he stopped at a machine with a glass cylinder covering, obscuring from sight what was underneath it. "I must admit, it brings me great joy seeing you four here. I've known all of you since before you could take your first steps on this earth, I'm glad to be the one to give all of you the tools to take your first steps into the wider world beyond quaint Pallet town," despite how tired Oak was, everyone could tell how happy and overjoyed for this moment, maybe even more so than the brand new trainers themselves. The group couldn't help but smile at how honest and heartfelt his words were, even Gary gave his grandfather a real smile than the usual arrogant smirk that had acquainted itself well onto his face in recent years.

Oak pressed a button on the machine, causing the glass dome to split in half and rescinded into the machine, revealing its content. Three pokéballs rested neatly inside, containing the groups future partners but something wasn't right. "Uh professor… there are only three pokéballs but four of us. What's the fourth one?" Henry pointed out, using his right hand to comb back his messy dirty blonde hair, using free one to pointing to the stickers placed on the three shown. One with a leaf sticker on it, the other with a raindrop sticker, and the last one with a open flame sticker, making it obvious which one contained which starter.

Oak nodded at the inquiry, walking over to the desk with the hanging receiver and opening up a drawer with one hand, the other reaching in and pulling out another pokéball from it. Unlike the others, it had no stickers or any other visual cue to give away its content, it was just a plain pokéball. "Unlike the others, which you can obviously tell what pokémon is inside, I'm gonna keep what's inside this one a secret. Which one of you is adventurous enough to choose it?" he asked with a smile, he had a good idea who was going to pick it.

"I'll take it!" Ash shouted, quickly raising his right arm up high, catching everyone but Oak off guard by the speedy response, not even a hint of hesitation.

"Are you sure, Ash?" Leaf asked unsure about his decision. "You have no idea what your getting, you could be getting a magikarp or a ratatta for all you know!" she warned her childhood friend, he could be getting a seriously weak pokémon and would be putting himself at a disadvantage compared to the conventional starters. That wasn't guaranteed of course, but the possibility was still there and he was jumping in without hesitation.

Henry nodded his head in agreement, pushing up his glasses slightly before giving Ash one of his analytical stares. "I have to concur Ash, this is quite the reckless choice you're making. Though, it doesn't affect me in the slightest," the blonde said casually, despite trying to hide it behind a veil of nonchalance, he was mildly concerned for the brash choice. The two weren't truly friends but they have hung out more often in recent years, Henry even tutoring the raven haired teen for his trainer exam.

Ash gave both of them a reassuring smile and a thumbs up, letting them know it was going to be alright. "I know it's a gamble but it doesn't matter what's inside that pokéball. So long has it has a will to fight and get stronger, I'll work with it and make it the strongest pokémon it can be!" he announced, it didn't matter what critter was inside, so long has it wanted to improve itself, he'll help it reach its goals and his own with it.

Leaf smiled at his statement, Henry simply nodded in understanding, and Oak gave him a nod in approval. Gary simply looked away and snorted. "With that settled, who'd like to choose their starter first?" Oak asked curiously, focusing his attention on the remaining three, but he had a feeling who was going first.

"Me of course," Gary stated matter of factly, stepping up to the machine and grabbing the pokéball with the raindrop symbol on it, peeling off the sticker and tossing it over his shoulder. "Squirtle is the best one of the lot, the rest ain't up to snuff for my standards," he told the rest, returning to his spot and stared down at his new pokéball, thoughts of grandeur already circulating inside his mind.

Henry glared at the brunette and let out a frustrated sigh, stepping up to the machine and wordlessly grabbing the pokéball with the flame sticker on it. Obviously he wanted the water starter but Gary dashed that desire.

Leaf merely giggled at Henry's frustration before skipping up to the machine, eagerly grabbing the last pokéball and skipping back to her original spot. She turned to the blonde and offered him a quiet 'thanks' to him, she wanted the grass starter from the beginning and was glad he didn't take it. He merely nodded in return, still a little grumpy.

"With that out of the way… Ash, here's yours," Oak told him, the professor lazily tossing the pokéball to the teen, who caught it easily with one hand. "Release it in here, I've actually never seen this pokémon in person before," he requested, his tired eyes lighting up in anticipation at the reveal, he was quite glad his colleague Kukui had a pokémon to spare, getting a adequate pokémon to be a starter on short notice was harder and more exhausting than he thought. Kukui was quite the savior.

Ash nodded eagerly, he was brimming with excitement at what was inside the pokéball. "Come on out!" the teen shouted, tossing the pokéball up high into the air, nearly causing it to bounce off the ceiling. The sphere split open and a white light shot out from it, the light hitting the floor in front of him and slowly taking shape, the anticipation was killing the teen has the light finally disappeared, revealing his partner.

The pokémon was canine in nature, standing on all four and only reached up to Ash's knee. The animal was predominantly light brown in colour with its paws, snout, and the tips of its ears being a dark brown, the ears being kinda floppy. The creatures most noticeable features was its curly tail pointing upwards and a ruff of fur around its neck, kinda looking like a collar, studded with small stones, both features being a more grayish-white compared to the rest. The pokémon open its eyes, revealing large blue eyes, and looked up to its new trainer, tilting its head cutely. "Rockruff?" the pokémon asked, looking into Ash's brown eyes.

Ash bent his knees to lower himself, raising his hand and gently placing it on the top of the creatures, petting it gently. "Hi there… I'm Ash, and your my partner," he quietly said, the canine leaning its head into his touch, letting out content growls at the attention that put a smile on the teen's face. "What are you? I've never seen you around before," he asked curious, picking up the pokémon and standing back up, raising the pokémon to his eye level who merely let out happy barks, causing Ash's smile to grow.

"That's rockruff, the puppy pokémon. It's only found on the islands of Alola, quite rare around these parts," Oak explained with a smile at the interaction, it seemed Kukui was right, after explaining Ash's personality to him, his colleague knew the two would mesh well.

"Well I love him!" Ash shouted, hugging the pokémon to his chest, the pokémon returning the affection by nuzzling its face on his cheeks. "Ow, ow! That hurts, stop boy!" he playfully yelled, it tickled but also stung due to the pokémon's rocks on its neck grinding on his skin.

"Actually it's 'stop girl', haha!" Oak told him while laughing, revealing the true gender of his new pokémon. "But that's enough bonding, I still need to give you a few more essentials before all of you can begin your journeys," he told them, his laughter dying down while Ash pulled his partner away and held her near his stomach facing forward. He walked over to the desk from earlier and opened up a different drawer, pulling out four red objects and holding them up for all to see. "This is a pokédex, an essential for trainers nowadays. Not only can it scan wild poķémon for you, providing tidbits of information on the scanned pokémon, but it can also scan pokémon you own, telling you what moves they can learn naturally, through TMs, etc," he explained, handing one device to each of them, Ash now holding rockruff with one hand, who was smelling the pokédex in curiosity.

"It also acts as a secondary pokémon trainer license in case you lose your actual one and, it automatically transfers funds between trainers after battles which than can be used like a credit card at any pokémon league sanctioned stores or exchanged for physical currency. Technology is amazing, isn't it?" he questioned them playfully, all of them nodding silently at how versatile and useful the small machine was, even rockruff was nodding. He grabbed something else from the same drawer while the new trainers pocketed their pokédexs. "Finally, Six standard pokéballs for each of you. I think I don't need to explain those to you, correct?" he asked while handing out the shrunken spheres, getting shaking heads in response.

"That's good. I think you all can see yourselves out. I need to catch up on some much needed rest…" Oak told them, the last part muffled by a loud yawn, the professor making his way to a set of stairs leading to the second floor. He slowly but surely made it upwards, gripping the railing of the stairs with has much strength has he could muster, as if we was afraid of collapsing. Soon enough, he disappears from sight, leaving the group alone.

Gary quickly turned to face Ash and held up his pokéball, an arrogant and condescending grin on his face. "Hey, Ashy! Let's have a pokémon battle, hopefully you'll be a decent workout for my new pokémon, we could use a training dummy!" the brunette half challenged half insults Ash, he was confident that it would be an easy first victory

Ash returned the grin, rockruff growling at the brunette who insulted both her and her trainer. "Your on, Gary! I've been waiting for this! Let's go outside!" he fired back, dropping rockruff onto the floor and bolting out the front door, the puppy pokémon following behind him. Gary gave chase after him, leaving behind two exasperated trainers. The two follow in suit, just at a far slower pace than the duo.

The two trainers stood opposite each other on the dirt road in front of the lab, five meters separating them from each other. Standing between them was Henry, acting has the referee for the bout, Leaf sat on the first few stair steps to Oak's lab, her bulbasaur sitting beside her has she gently stroked its head, she was content of being a mere observer. "This will be a one on one battle between Ash and Gary of Pallet town, the winner will be declared when one trainer runs out of useable pokémon," Henry announced the rules, his eyes darting between the combatants, getting nods of agreement. "Please choose your pokémon," he told them, slowly walking over to Leaf and leaning on the fence next to her, he wanted to get away from the line of fire.

"Rockruff, your up!" Ash announced, looking down at his pokémon which stood by his side, who gave him a nod before trotting forward, standing a few feet in front of him. The trainer pulled out his pokédex from his pocket and flipped it open, pointing it at his partner and scanning her, he needed to know what he had to work with. _Tackle, growl, and sand attack are her moves, not much to work with but I shouldn't expected too much. Rock type and ability own tempo, can't get confused. Neat._ The ability was situational and he doubted squirtle actually had moves that could confuse an enemy right now, but it can come handy later. He put away the pokédex, that's all he needed to know for the moment.

"Done reading Ashy? Good, squirtle let's take this loser down a couple of more notches!" Gary shouted, throwing his pokéball into the air, the ball opening up and releasing the turtle pokémon in front of him. The starter looked around mildly confused, finally noticing it was in a battle and took a fighting stance.

"Begin!" Henry shouted, starting the match between rivals.

"Tackle!" Both trainers shouted in unison, using the only offensive move either pokémon knew.

Both pokémon let out a growl of acknowledgment at the orders before charging forward, both starters leaning their heads forward for the collision. The distance between them quickly disappeared with each step, until they smashed their head together causing a loud thud and tiny shockwave to be felt. At first, it looked even, but than squirtle threw its head back and let out a pained cry, backing up a little has it rubbed its aching head. Rockruff on the other hand looked fine.

"What?! How?! We used the same move!" Gary shouted angrily, he had to be cheating somehow!

"It's called rockruff is a rock type, normal type moves aren't effective against it!" Ash gloated with a smirk, it seemed his rival lacked the foresight to scan his pokémon to learn its typing. Now to finish off his opponent! "Hit him with another tackle! He ordered out, not wanting to give squirtle a chance to recover.

Rockruff leaped back in recognition of the order, making distance so it can get a running start and maximize its damage. When it landed, the rock type immediately charged forward towards the injured water type, Gary desperately telling it to dodge but to no avail. Just when it was about to reach it, she kicked off the ground and slammed her head right into squirtle's forehead. The force of the attack sent flying back, hitting the dirt floor back first and sliding across the floor until stopping at its trainer feet, swirls in its eyes and a big red mark on its forehead.

Gary ordered the pokémon to get up but no response was given, the pokémon was out cold. Henry lifted one arm and pointed it to Ash. "Squirtle is unable to continue, Ash is the winner!" he announced with a smirk, quite gleeful that the brunette lost, shows him for taking his desired starter.

Ash had the biggest smile on his face, not even acknowledging that Leaf was clapping at his victory, angering Gary further has he returned his pokémon, stalking away without a word. _I just won my first battle has a trainer…_ he thought, beating Gary was mere icing on the cake of his victory, he was a real pokémon trainer now. "Good work, rockruff!" the teen congratulated his pokémon, this battle was pretty basic but she still did great.

Rockruff let out a happy bark at their first victory, running around in circles excitedly before charging at her trainer, leaping into the air has she got close, aiming for his chest.

Ash opened his arms wide and caught the pokémon, hugging the pokémon closely has she assaulted his chin with licks. "Haha! We're going to make the best team!" he exclaimed excitedly, petting the canine on the back has she barked out happily, nuzzling his neck getting a fit of giggles in return.

"At the very least, the two of you will be great friends," A feminine voice spoke from behind them, amusement evident in her tone.

Ash excitedly turned around at the voice, placing rockruff on the ground, who was confused at this new person. "Mom!" the teen shouted, running up to his mother before stopping right in front of her. However, he was nearly knocked over by feeling something knock into his legs, looking down to reveal it was his starter, who gave chase and rammed into him because of his sudden stop. "This is rockruff, my new partner! Isn't she great?" he introduce, the puppy pokémon walking forward and sniffing his mother's feet in curiosity.

Delia chuckled before bending down to gently pet the pokémon's head, placing a orange and black backpack on the floor which she was holding. "She's very adorable, and has nearly as much energy as you," she joked, the pokémon barking happily at all the petting she was receiving recently. "You need to take care of my baby boy, he can be reckless at times. Protect him and make sure he comes home one day in one piece," she requested the tiny pokémon, who gave a nod and a determine barked from the canine.

Ash blushed in embarrassment at what his mom said. "Jeez, thanks for the vote of coincidence, mom. I'll be fine and we'll be taking care of each other," he reassured, grabbing the backpack off the floor and placing it securely around his shoulders, humming softly has he felt the bag was off. "It feels heavier from last night…" he mumbled, he packed everything he needed the night before and tried it on, feels like it gained a few pounds.

"Oh, that? I just packed a few extra things you might need, your a strong boy afterall. I packed some sandwiches for you, an extra canteen, and some extra underwear!" she explained, getting a massive blush of embarrassment from her son at the mention of last addition.

"Thanks! Love you, goodbye! Let's go, rockruff!" Ash yelled, planting a kiss on her cheek before darting down the road towards route one, he needed to get outta there before she said even more embarrassing things!

The puppy pokémon was surprised at the speed of her trainer, why was he in such a sudden rush? She couldn't question it, he was getting further away from. She let out one more bark at Delia before giving chase to her trainer, before he disappeared entirely from her site, leaving behind a giggling mother.

"Wait, Ash! I thought we were traveling together…" Leaf trailed off, seeing the boy disappear on the horizon, she still had to do some packing before she left. That boy sometimes...

 **-Chapter Ends-**

 **Hopefully that's a good start. I know people would like a different region start, and I'm no genwunner purist, but i know Kanto the best. But! I promise you a diverse team for Ash, not just Gen 1 pokémon, rockruff will certainly not be his only none Kanto pokémon.**

 **please comment and give me any constructive criticism, i wanna improve and provide an enjoyable read to all my readers.**


	2. Misfortune on the Road to Viridian

**I'm back, with a new chapter in tow! but first, to answer a comment:**

 **Saulong8655: When I saw your comment, I just imagined a really confused Metagross in the middle of Viridian forest with a bunch of caterpies crawling all over it, haha. Don't worry, I won't give it stuff out of nowhere, Ash is a pretty lucky guy but it needs to be reasonable. It's true that people do abandon pokémon, explaining why odd pokémon are in certain area in the anime, but you need at least a reason to why it was abandoned there, outside some trainers are just jerks.**

 **Anyway, lets move on with the story! But first, the warnings!**

 **Pokémon belongs to Gamefreak and Dragon Ball belongs to Toriyama, my lord and savior! I own and profit nothing from these franchises**

 **-Chapter Starts-**

Ash eventually stopped and took several deep breaths, why did his mom always have to say such embarrassing things in public, in front of his friends no less! He was thirteen for Arceus sake! He didn't need her constantly reminding him to change his underwear, wash behind your ears, or reminding him to always flush the toilet. He loved his mother, he really did, but he was one hundred percent sure she only did it to mess with him, her giggling ringing in his head. He turned his head to look behind him, seeing the silhouette of his pokémon getting closer and closer to him, eventually she skidded to a stop just before she could crash into him a second time.

Ash bent down and gave the pokémon a gentle pat on the head, getting an affectionate yelp in return. "Mom's can be so embarrassing, wouldn't you agree?" the teen asked his starter, only getting a confused tilt of the head back, obviously the pokémon didn't understand what he meant. "I guess it's not the same for pokémoms, uh? They don't bother you about underwear since you guys don't wear clothes to begin with!" he joked chuckling, it must be nice to be a pokémon, living freely on the meadows and eating when you wanted to, must be the life. Except when another pokémon wanted to eat you, he'll stick with embarrassing moms than dealing with that.

Ash stood back up and took a deep of fresh air, his eyes scanning the surrounding area like spearow scans the floor for bug types to eat. Route one, such familiar territory. The teen reminisced, oh the countless times he's went camping out here in preparation for his journey, the smell of ruined camp food still fresh in his memory, at least now he can actually cook good food.

Route one was a quaint place, like Pallet town itself, a land of soft rolling hills and grassland, with the occasional tree spurting amongst the sea of grass, providing shade for pokémon on hot days when the wind didn't provide cool breezes. The route had a nickname 'Kanto's nursery', earned because of all the young and weak pokémon found in the area, ratatta, pidgey, and spearows all migrated here to give birth and raise their young until their young was old enough, than they spread out elsewhere. There wasn't much competition between pokémon here, no strong predators to attack all the younglings, the worst threat around these parts were spearow flocks that occasionally formed up in route one.

"What I'm thinking… we head to Viridian right away, get some real training in there, and from there hit up route twenty two to catch some pokémon, nothing around here interest me," Ash thought out loud, rockruff looking up at him and nodding at his plan, it seemed to her like he had a plan. The teen didn't really want to catch anything around here, he knew what pokémon lived here and none really caught his interest, most trainers ditch their ratatta and raticates after a while, why catch something he's gonna send away and never use?

With his plan set, he slowly made his away down the dirt path towards Viridian city, its mighty skyscrapers visible even from where he was. He should be able to reach it by the end of the day even if stuck to his walking speed. He closed his eyes has he let his mind wonder, confident that rockruff would protect him from any strat pokémon roaming around, thinking about what his team should be. A nidoran would be good, either gender would be fine. A mankey would be cool… he thought to himself, trying to recall the most common pokémon around route twenty two.

" **Help!!! Someone!!!** " a voice cried, knocking out the teen from musings and putting rockruff on high alert. Ash quickly looked around, trying to find where the cry for help came from before noticing movement at the corner of his eye. Off the dirt trail to his, was a lone tree and underneath it he could see someone running around, he couldn't make out any details on the person but he could see two objects flying around the individual and swooping down on him. Certainly not a good sign.

"Rockruff, tackle that flying type on the right!" Ash ordered to his starter, slipping his backpack off his shoulders before running towards the tall grass, heading towards the distressed individual, their cries for help still being heard.

Rockruff barked and charged into the grass with him, flanking him has the duo charged to the aid of stranger. As they neared, they noticed the two flying types were actually spearows and their victim was in fact a young girl, no older than her trainer. The girl tripped on a rock has she ran and fell to the floor, the spearows swooping in on the target.

Ash, noticing what was happening, tossed his backpack at the spearow on the left, the heavy bag slamming into the unexpecting pokémon and knocking it away from its target. Its compatriot suffered a tackle attack from rockruff, the bird pokémon getting thrown onto the ground harshly. "Tackle the other one!" the raven haired trainer ordered, kneeling beside the fallen girl, checking on her to see if she was alright.

Rockruff growled in acknowledgment and charged at the other spearow, who just got the heavy backpack off it and was still drowsy from the surprise attack. The rock type slammed into the side of the unexpecting pokémon, the flying type sent flying into the tall grass and disappearing from sight. The first spearow screeched at her and her trainer but instead of attacking, merely took flight in the opposite direction of the duo, its partner coming into view and flying beside it. Seems attacking the girl wasn't worth the effort anymore.

"Are you alright?" Ash asked the downed girl, offering her his hand to get back to her feet, the girl tentatively taking it and getting back onto her feet. The girl was a platinum blonde with hair that only reached her shoulders, blue eyes looking at him, hot tears running down her face, a few claw marks on her cheeks from the spearows.

"Y-yes, I'm f-fine… but my pokémon…" she cried, slowly walking towards the tree before getting on her knees besides an unconscious growlithe, noticeable bruising on its body and scratch marks on it. "My precious Ember…" obviously the pokémon was hurt, nothing life threatening but the fire type was in no condition to fight.

Ash grabbed his discarded backpack and walked up to them, rockruff following in tow, before kneeling beside the crying girl. "Did the spearows do this?" he asked her, opening up his bag and pulling out a potion from it, giving the bottle a few shakes before gently spraying down growlithe, the injured pokémon flinching in pain has the medicine kicked in.

"N-No… I don't know what did this to him…" she told him, raising one hand to her face and brushing away her tears. "I left him here to guard my bags while I went to refill my water bottles from a nearby stream…" she used her free hand to point out a small stream about five yards away, a few clear water bottles scattered around it. "I was filling them up but than I heard him cry out in pain, I rushed over here only finding him like this and my bag torn open. Those spearows must have heard me crying and came over, attacking me until you came along. This was just supposed to be a training trip, I'm never leaving Viridian city again," she whimpered out, looking at her ruined bags.

Ash raised an eyebrow, a mystery pokémon on the loose? "What did it take from your bags? Food?" he asked her curiously, that's what wild pokémon usually looking to get at, it was quite annoying having to deal with ratattas trying to steal your food while your camping. He knew that personally.

The girl merely shook her head at the question. "I'm missing a few pieces of food but what I'm also missing are my metal cutlery, brand new too, sparkled in the sunlight. What sorta pokémon beats up another just to steal utensils?!" she asked angrily, her fists clenching her pants tightly, obviously upset that her pokémon suffered merely for pieces of metal.

"That's a good question…" Ash responded confused, food he could understand a wild pokémon stealing, but forks and knives? Seemed oddly specific. The boy stopped spraying down the fire type, the pokémon slowly opening its eyes and lifting its head up, the damage from earlier gone. The girl cried out and hugged the canine close, her companion licking her cheek to comfort her has she cried into his warm pelt. "He should be fine. Best gather your things before heading back, best not stick around," the pokémon that did this could still be around, though Ash was now quite intrigued by the mystery pokémon, it was powerful enough to defeat a growlithe swiftly and was after cutlery. Maybe there was something worth catching on route one after all.

The teen walked over to the stream to retrieve the water bottles with rockruff, the girl staying behind to pack her things. Reaching the stream, he bent down and started to pick up the water bottles, placing and tightening the caps on them. "Hey, rockruff. Think smell out the pokémon who did this? I wanna try and catch it," he asked his starter, whatever this pokémon was it certainly was stronger than most critters around here. No matter what, it was still a menace that was attacking people and robbing them like a bandit. Maybe it wasn't a wild pokémon but a trainer, but either way, these attacks had to stop.

Rockruff gave her a nod at his request, the puppy pokémon raising her head up high and taking a deep whiff. The scent of herself, her trainer, and the duo they just helped was ignored. She was assaulted by a flurry of scents, from the many pokémon that roamed the area, making it difficult to find the scent. She scrunched up her face and took a deep breath, something wasn't right in the smells, most of the smells were very similar to each other but underneath those smell was something unique, different and alien to the others. She opened her eyes wide, she found the scent! She didn't know what it was but it was a foreign to the area, like her. She barked at her trainer and wagged her tail excitedly, with the scent she could track their bandit!

Ash grinned at her excitement, he assumed she caught the scent of whatever did this. He stood up and walked over to the girl, bottles in hand, than placing them at her side, the girl still stroking her companion. "I gotta go, I wanna try and find what did this," he told her, only getting a nod in response from the traumatized girl, obviously she didn't want to think more about what had happen to her. After making sure she would be fine, he whistled to rockruff and walked further into the tall grasses, straying further from the dirt paths. "Alright, take the lead girl!" he ordered, it was up to her and that nose of her's to find their culprit, he almost felt like those stars in cop dramas his mother loves to watch.

Rockruff nodded and stepped in front of her trainer, nose raised up high to catch the scent before it became too faint to actually track it. She barked and ran towards the northwest, that's where the scent was headed! Her trainer quickly followed behind her, keeping pace with her easily.

Ash would follow his partner for a good ten minutes without too much happening, a few battles against ratattas which the puppy pokémon quickly dispatched with well placed tackles. After none stop running, Ash would come upon another female trainer with brown hair sitting under a tree, the woman had a very upset face on and unconscious poliwag beside her. The teen ran up to her, stopping in front of her. "Excuse me, what happened here?" he asked her, but had a good idea what happened.

The girl looked up at him and sighed. "I don't really know, I went to some nearby bushes to… use the 'restroom' leaving behind Poli and my bag. Next thing I know, a water gun nearly hits me in the back of the head! I was gonna yell at my poliwag for what he did but when I got here, he was like this," she said, gently rubbing the belly of the tadpole pokémon, who's tail slapped the ground slowly, enjoying the attention it was receiving despite its state.

"Let me guess… it stole something from your bag?" Ash asked her, looking over to the bag resting on her other side, unlike with the earlier girl, this one wasn't torn open but he noticed some straps on the side had been snapped. Rockruff sniffed the bag, obviously catching their thief's sent on it, but the other trainer shooed her away from it.

"Yeah… just some keychains I hanged on my bag, they weren't really valuable but they were my good luck charms. Not sure why someone would take metal keychains, I just finished polishing them too, they had such a nice sparkle to them," She whined, covering her face with both her and shaking her head, she hated that this happened but hated more that she couldn't understand why it happened. Her keychains barely costed a few dollars, the bag itself was brand new and costed her way more than all her keychains combine.

 _Our thief is targeting metallic objects, not food. But, it doesn't seem to care about value at all._ Ash thought to himself rubbing his chin, he now doubted that a trainer would be involved in these crimes, a human would have a good idea of value and worth, whatever was doing this obviously didn't care about value. "You didn't see anything at all?" the teen asked again, he had no idea what he was actually looking for, it could be a flying type pokémon, between its last robbery and this one wasn't a very long span of time it must have a way of getting around quickly.

The girl nodded once more but removed her hands from her face, her eyes wide and slightly bloodshot, it seemed she remembered something. She shoved her left hand into her front pocket and pulled something out, holding it up for him to see. It was a feather, black as night and slightly drenched in water. "I found some feathers when I came back, they were wet. I think my pokémon hit it with a water gun and knocked them off it, I'm sure of it!" she exclaimed, gripping the feather tightly in her hand, obviously holding it made her angry knowing what it did to her pokémon.

Ash reached out and gently plucked the feather from her hand, lifting up to his eyes so he could inspect it. It certainly wasn't a feather from a pidgey or spearow which were common around route one, not even their evolution have feathers this dark. "I think this is a murkrow feather," he told her, though finding one out here was very odd. He heard from people who came and went from Pallet town to Viridian city, usually drivers who went to pick up shipments of goods for businesses or pickup Pallet towns produce, of how problematic the murkrow population was there. Stealing food and sparkling objects whenever they could, they were brazen enough to do it during the day instead of the night, when their usually most active. "Makes sense now, but why is it here?" he asked, more to himself than her, they usually stick to cities during the day and only leave when the sun went down.

"One of those things?! Arceus, I hate those flying thieves! My mom actually lost her wedding ring to one in Viridian city a month back, she said they weren't a problem before when she was a kid but now nothing is done about them. I blame Giovanni, he hasn't done much for the problem despite everyone complaining about them!" the girl let out an exasperated sigh at the revelation, obviously she didn't have a high opinion of the dark/flying type, nor for the gym leader of her home city. "He's not even in the city, stupid gym has been closed for like a month. Seems his personal business is more important than the city. I've even heard rumors of a honchkrow stalking about in the city…" she wasn't exactly pleased to have a flying crime boss in her city.

 _She likes to talk a lot to herself._ Ash thought to himself, just nodding at her every sentence while he pulled out another potion, half paying attention to her ramblings. Though, her comments about the gym being closed and the honchkrow did peak his interest. "Sorry to hear that, but I gotta go. Here, use this to heal up your pokémon. I'm gonna go and try to catch that murkrow," he told her, placing the bottle beside her feet before taking off in another direction before she could respond, his starter following him.

" **Thank you for the help! I hope you get that bandit and throw that pokéball into the nearest lake!** " She shouted at him, waving him goodbye before focusing her attention on her pokémon, picking up the potion the stranger left behind.

 _Now that I know what I'm dealing with, I know how to lure it out._ Ash grinned excitedly while he ran, obviously the bird was targeting shiny objects, probably only stole the blonde's food due to the fact it was just hungry at the time. Luckily, he packed a metal canteen for him, put some polish on it and presto, bait for their flying bandit. The teen stopped, catching his breath while scanning the area, the girl from moments ago was nowhere in sight and it seemed he was the only human around, a large patch of tall grass nearby. Perfect for a trap.

He set down his backpack and opened it up, ruffling through it to find his canteen, rockruff placing her front paws on the bag and peaking inside it curiously. He pulled out his target, a stainless steel canteen that lacked any colors or stylish markings, plain but effective. He rubbed his jacket sleeve on it slightly before looking away immediately, a nasty glare from the sunlight temporary blinding him. Ash blinked his eyes a bit to get rid of the spots he was seeing, okay polish was not necessary. "Alright, rockruff, go hide in that grass over there," the teen ordered, using one hand to the tall grass while the other was full holding the canteen, now using his sleeve to rub his eyes.

After regaining his vision, Ash places the shiny canteen where he stood, the grass short enough to not obscure the shiny metal object from sight. He left the backpack where it was and left it open, making it appear that he left it unattended, than ducking into the tall grass and laying on his stomach, rockruff laying beside him. " _Now we wait..._ " he whispered, watching the area in front of him with an eager grin.

That grin slowly morphed into grimace, seconds turned to minutes and before long, an entire hour had gone by without a murkrow popping up. The most action the boy got was the occasional rattatas and pidgeys trying to rummage through his bag, rockruff chasing them away with a few tackles. Maybe it's not around here anymore? Ash thought bored, picking up a few strands of grass before blowing on it, sending the poor plants into the air where they caught a stiff breeze before disappearing from sight. What a thrilling adventure, laying on his stomach for an hour watching nothing, his stomach was starting to hurt from laying on it…

Just has the teen was about to pack up and leave, something flew into his line of sight and landed beside his bag. The creature had dark features, a cluster of feathers on its head giving it an appearance of a hat, and a broom shaped tail. It was a murkrow! The dark type inspected the area carefully before walking up to the canteen, pecking at with its beak and looking at its reflection on the metal surface. It let out a squawk before wrapping its talons around the lid and attempted to fly away, but couldn't lift the object with it causing it to land and frustratingly peck at.

A grin broke across Ash's lips at the sight, it seemed their little bandit finally appeared. However, Has he looked closely at the pokémon, somethings stuck out about it. There was noticeable scarring on the pokémon, most significant being claw marks on its long beak, it looked like a pair of talons did the job but mark was too big to be done by a pidgey or spearow, or even another murkrow. The hat like plumage on its head was noticeably shredded, multiple slits could be found in it and the ends were ruff instead of straight, giving the pokémon a battleworn and scruffy look. This pokémon has been in a terrible fight recently, Ash almost felt bad for it, what could have possibly done the damage?

Ash shook his head, now was not to feel bad for the pokémon, it's best to catch the pokémon now and treat its wounds properly. The teen grabbed a pokéball from his pocket and expanded it, he knew murkrows preferred to run away and lure people away than directly fight them, he only had one good shot at it. " _Rockruff, use tackle on it,_ " he whispered into his partner's ear, getting a twitch of the ear in return, the puppy pokémon slowly creeping towards the edge of the tall grass, the grass hiding the rock types presence from the thieving pokémon.

Suddenly, rockruff burst out of the tall grass and charged murkrow, the dark/flying type surprised by the pokémon's sudden appearance. Taking advantage of murkrow's stunned state, the rock type slammed her head straight into its chest, the darkness pokémon sent flying back, its body grinding painfully on the dirt floor. The pokémon used the momentum to right itself and land on its feet, its talons digging into the ground to stop its momentum. It looked up to glare at its attacker but received a pokéball to the face, a red light shooting out of the sphere and engulfing it.

Ash watched has the darkness pokémon disappeared, the pokéball falling helplessly onto the floor, the center flickering with a red light while it shook. One shake, two shakes. Before the capture could finish, the pokéball exploded, pieces of shrapnel flying and bouncing off rockruff, leaving an agitated murkrow where it once was. The bird pokémon let out squawk before taking to the air and flying away, dodging a tackle from the starter. "Darn, should we follow it?" he asked his partner, watching the bird pokémon fly away, following it would be a wild farfetch hunt, he'll just get lost and spend the night out here.

Ash let out a sigh, it was better to cut his losses and go with his original plan to head for Viridian city. He bent down to pick up his backpack but noticed something, murkrow made a U turn and it was heading back towards them very quickly. Wings glowing… " **That's a wing attack!!!** " he yelled in shock, the darkness pokémon was actually coming back to fight them! He was more shock that the pokémon wanted to fight than the attack itself, this murkrow was certainly not like the normal ones!

The bird pokémon dove down and slammed its glowing wing into rockruff's side, sending the rock type into the air, taking advantage of Ash's stunned state, a reversal of roles. The teen shook his head, he needed to focus. "Right yourself and use growl!" he ordered to his starter, murkrow taking back to the air before its opponent could properly counter.

Rockruff twisted its body in midair, allowing herself to land on the ground on her feet insteading crashing back down to earth. The attack didn't do much damage, the flying type move not being effective due to her rock typing, much to the annoyance of murkrow, who never saw this species of pokémon before so had no idea what was effective against it. The rock type took a deep breath and let out out powerful growl, waves of blue energy echoing out of her mouth and washing over her opponent, leaving behind a blue glow on the dark type.

Ash looked up at murkrow, the darkness pokémon high above them but merely flew in place, the two of them staring into each other in the eyes, neither looking away or backing down. The teen smiled at the pokémon, causing it to tilt its head in confusion. "You ain't gonna run are you, murkrow? I like that attitude, makes me wanna catch you even more!" he exclaimed excitedly, shocking the darkness pokémon by his increasing desire to capture him, the shock turned to amusement and murkrow let out an amused chortle. "I'm sorry I cheap shotted you like that, I thought you were gonna run away. You're a crook, but you ain't a cowardly one. Let's battle! Growl!" Ash ordered his pokémon, his really wanted this guy on his team now!

Murkrow let out a squawk of acceptance at the challenge before dive bombing towards the ground, doing a ninety degree turn, flying close to the ground while a black aura surrounded the dark tine has he flew straight towards rockruff. The dark type flinched slightly has the high pitched growl hit him, lowering his physical attacking power further. Despite that, the darkness pressed onward and slammed its beak into its opponent, the aura surrounding it dissipating after impact.

The force of the attack pushed rockruff back, her feet skidding across the floor but she didn't lose her balance, eventually stopping after being pushed a few feet. She looked up to see murkrow flying at her again, a familiar aura surrounding the dark type.

"Dodge! Counter with tackle!" Ash ordered, that was pursuit, a dark type attack which she couldn't resist like the earlier wing attack, luckily they lowered his physical attacking power making the attack far less effective than it would be normally.

Rockruff braced herself has murkrow drew closer, her knees bent ready to move at the last second. Just has the dark type was about to connect, the rock type leaped to the side, the tips of its wings narrowly grazing her side. Rockruff landed and swiftly kicked off the ground, launching herself at murkrow's exposed flank for the tackle. Expertly, her opponent let loose a powerful wing flap lifting itself just over her attack, the puppy pokémon flying harmlessly under it and landing on the ground a few feet away. Murkrow launched itself itself once more at rockruff, its black aura flaring up.

 _This isn't going anywhere, their both very nimble pokémon._ Ash thought, seeing rockruff sidestep murkrow's attack than launching a tackle in return but that attack was dodged by murkrow, who countered in return and getting the exact same result back. _I gotta slow it down somehow… that's it!_ "Rockruff! Sand attack than tackle!" the teen ordered, hopefully this works.

Rockruff let loose a bark at the command, lowering its tail to the ground and quickly whipping it in the direction of her opponent, who was launching another pursuit at her, launching dirt and sand towards its eyes. The attack hit its target, murkrow letting out a screech of irritation at the filth now in its eyes, the darkness pokémon blindly continuing its attack. Rockruff easily sidestepped attacked, allowing the bird pokémon to sail past her and crash into the ground violently.

Murkrow shakily got up from its violent crash, using its right wing to rub the filth out of its eyes, it couldn't fly straight with it in its eyes. Before it could finish, the puppy pokémon violently slammed into its back launching it forward, its body grinding harshly on the floor. The darkness slowly got back up to its feet, glaring at its opponent, ignoring the injuries its sustained now and earlier. It jumped into the air and tried to take flight but its right wing gave out, the pokémon crashing back down onto the ground but got up anyway, its right wing limp and dragging on the ground has it moved forward towards rockruff.

Ash grabbed another pokéball from his pocket and quickly expanded it, tossing it at the injured pokémon right in the chest. The pokéball bounced off it and shot out its red beam, murkrow getting sucked into the sphere, disappearing from sight. The pokéball landed on the floor with a flood, the centerpiece blinking rapidly and the entire orb shaking. _Please, let me catch you, more for your sake than mine._ The teen pleaded mentally, he respected this little guy's determination and spirit, he wanted to help it and have it join his team.

The teen watched the ball carefully, raising a hand to cover his face in case murkrow actually escaped a second time. After a tense few seconds, the ball stopped shaking and the red light glowed brightly before stopping suddenly, he caught it. Ash released a breath he didn't know he was holding and walked up to the ball, bending down and picking it up. He excitedly lifted his arm up high, holding up the pokéball for all to see. " **I caught a murkrow!!!** " he shouted to the heavens, he actually caught his first pokémon! The rush and suspense was amazing! Who knew just watching a ball shake and blink could be so heart pumping!

 _Don't worry little guy, I'm gonna patch you up._ Ash thought lowering his arm, slowly walking over to his discarded bag, rockruff excitedly running circles around him at their victory. He took a seat on the grassy floor and crossed his legs, grabbing the canteen he used as bait and putting it away in the bag, no longer needing it. He scoured his bag for another potion, did he pack two or five? He's been handing them out so quickly he lost track! Growing frustrated, he lifted the bag and dumped its entire content, spilling it all over the floor. Finally, he saw the elusive potion beside a pack of sandwiches, seems his mom rearranged somethings to fit her extra supplies. He picked it up before gently tossing the ball into the air. "Come on out," he called out, hopefully his new teammate ain't gonna be too upset.

The pokéball released murkrow, the pokémon groggily looking around slightly confused at what happened, only remembering a bright red flash. He noticed the human and canine pokémon he had battled beside him, a pokéball falling from the air and landing in the teen's free hand, everything finally clicking in. This human caught him. He looked up at the human and let out a threatening squawk at him, which lost much of its intimidation factor when he flinched in pain and fell forward. The pokémon expected to feel his face hit the dirt, but surprisingly didn't, the human stretched out his hand and caught him before he could. "M-Mur…" he squawked out in pain, looking into the humans brown eyes with his red ones.

"whoa, calm down there. You ain't in no shape to fight, you weren't exactly in fighting shape before now to start with. Let me help," Ash reassured the dark type, raising up the potion for him to see and giving it a few shakes. "This is gonna sting, like badly. Just hold still, you'll feel better" he warned the pokémon, slowly spraying the bottles content over murkrow, focusing especially on the limp wing, not sure if the potion would work on it.

Murkrow flinched in pain has the spray touched, a painful stinging sensation racking the darkness pokémon. The pokémon flapped his wings fiercely, freeing him from the human's hold and taking him into the air. He looked down and screeched at the human for harming him but noticed something, he was looking down on him… he was in the air… Murkrow looked at his right wing, the wing looking near pristine like hasn't been damaged at all. "Murkrow!" he squawked in happiness, beginning to flying around circles in the air excitedly, the pain from new and old wounds seemingly having vanished.

Ash looked up at the happy bird with a smile, it seemed like the medicine worked well, it's probably best to get him checked out at a pokémon center just to be safe. "Told you I wanted to help! Come on down!" the teen shouted to murkrow, he wanted to make friends with the dark type and not merely force it to work with him.

Murkrow stopped flying in circles and looked down at the boy, before craning his head to look towards the open sky to his right. It would be so easy to simply fly away, he came out here to live by his own desires and not submit to whims of a so called 'superior', like his brethren in Viridian city. He was better than that, prouder than that! Punished for that… Was this human no better? Would he simply be an inferior to him, like the other murkrow fearfully became? He healed him after all… the darkness pokémon slowly descended until his talons touched the ground, he'll give the human a chance, at the very least for that.

Ash smiled has his new pokémon stood in front of him, it seemed he was willing to work with him. "I'm Ash! And this is Rockruff!" he introduced, resting a hand on the aforementioned pokémon's back, who let out a bark in greeting to the new member of their group. "I gotta say, Murkrow! You were great in that battle! If you were at full strength when we fought, I don't think we could have beat you!" the teen admitted honestly, murkrow was pretty messed up when they actually fought and they got a cheap shot in on it, it was a real testament to this pokémon that he fought as well as he did in that condition.

Murkrow puffed up its chest at the praise, it was strange hearing such admiration from a human, he was more used to shouting from them out of spite or frustration. Probably because he stole something from them, in all fairness. He could get used to hearing it. The darkness pokémon nodded in agreement but was interrupted by rockruff who barked out in disagreement, saying she would have won either way. The dark type let out an annoyed squawk at her claim, flapping his wings aggressively, rockruff returning the gesture with a growl and baring her teeth at him. It seemed like the two wanted to duke it out, but they were cut off by their trainer suddenly laughing.

"You two barely know each other and already you two are rivals. But please, save it for a spar!" Ash laughed out, wiping away a forming tear from his eyes, these two were gonna be an interesting pair. He didn't mind them having a competition, they'll just grow stronger trying to outdo the other, he just needs to make sure the duo don't fight together. "What do you say, Murkrow? I want you to be my pokémon, I want us to achieve our dreams together! I want to become the strongest trainer, and for that I'll need pokémon with a fighting spirit like yours!" the teen exclaimed, looking into the pokémon eyes while thrusting the pokéball forward, a gesture of cooperation between them.

Murkrow looked at the pokéball before looking up to the eyes, a burning determination in those eyes, not so different from his own. Maybe, this human could make him stronger, determination alone wasn't enough to beat his enemy, he needed to grow stronger for that. He didn't like having someone over him… but maybe having a partner wouldn't be too bad. The darkness pokémon nodded before pecking the center of the ball with his beak, the red light firing out and returning the pokémon to its ball.

Ash's grinned wildly at the action, shrinking the pokéball and attaching it to his belt that came with miniature magnets that kept the pokéball securely on his belt. He looked down at the ground and his grin disappeared, looking over the scattered supplies he dumped from his bag. He sighed before bending down and carefully began stuffing his bag with the supplies. Well, he wanted to repack his bag anyway, it wasn't an inconvenience at all!

With everything packed up, Ash strapped the bag around his shoulder before grabbing Rockruff's ball from his belt. "You deserve a break, I'll call you when I need a hand," the trainer said, returning the puppy pokémon to her ball, getting a happy bark from her before she vanished. He placed the ball on his belt and looked towards the direction of Viridian city, its massive skyscrapers easily allowing him to get his bearings. With his destination now at the forefront of his mind, the teen began the slow trudge towards the city.

Ash let out an annoyed sigh has he roamed the streets of Viridian city, trying his best to locate the city's pokémon center, the sun was still in the sky but he was sure that it would set in an hour or two. He released Murkrow so the dark/flying type could find it for him, but the moment he realized where they were, he adamantly refused to take flight. Despite trying to reason with the pokémon, he wouldn't budge on the issue, his eyes flickering side to side like he expected to be attacked by something. Ash respected the choice and returned the pokémon, the darkness pokémon flashed him an apologetic look before vanishing, letting him know it was just the location and not him just being picky.

I wouldn't blame him though… Ash thought, stopping a nearby stranger to get direction to the center, only to get ignored by the person who kept walking on.

Viridian was a big city, the largest west of the Kanto mountain range that split the region into two. Unlike Pallet town, everyone seemed too busy and disconnected from each other, cars honking in traffic quickly grew into a annoyance for Ash, compared to how quiet his hometown and the surrounding area was. The abundance of murkrows also gave the city an oppressive atmosphere, the creatures hanging on power poles or whatever other object made a reasonable perch, just watching everyone walking around with cold, analyzing stares. It honestly felt like they were sizing up their marks, looking for the best target to steal from. Luckily for him, their eyes haven't focused on him too much, but he'd really like to find the center before dusk, before they become far more active.

Ash sighed as he continued to walk through the masses, everyone he spoke to too busy to spare even a glance at him. However, from the corner of his eyes, he saw an elderly man sitting on a bench at a nearby bus stop, wearing a worned brown suit with matching loafers. Maybe he'll have better luck with the elderly. He carefully navigated the mass of walking pedestrians until finally stopping beside the man, the man glancing at the teen curiously. "Excuse me sir, I just wanna ask, do you know where the pokémon center is?" Ash asked politely, offering the man a kind smile.

The elderly gentleman snorted at the question, like the answer should be obvious before grabbing his cane that rested beside him and pointed to the northwest. "There's a large park just a few blocks that way, you'll know when you see it. North of that, is the center. Big red roofed building, even harder to miss," the man explained, putting his cane back down after finishing, a blue bus stopping in front of the duo. "Best hurry there, Viridian ain't the safest place when the sun goes down. Them rocket hooligans been running around recently, between them and them thieving birds flying about, the city's nights are treacherous to put it mildly. Police are overworked as it is and that no good gym leader doesn't do anything. If I was ten years younger, I would've moved long before now," the man grumbled out, getting up from his seat has the bus doors opened up, the old man getting into the vehicle, the bus door closing behind him before shortly leaving.

"Rocket hooligans?" Ash asked himself confused, he never heard of them. He shook his head before quickly sprinting off in the directions the man gave him, he didn't have time to worry about that sorta thing! It was starting to get dark and he needed some chow in his and his pokémon guts!

Following the directions given, Ash eventually stopped in front of the sliding doors of the pokémon center, a massive glowing pokéball sign hungover the entrance. "My first real night outside of Pallet…" the teen mumbled to himself, he went camping before yeah, but he was never far from his hometown, always able to run home if something ever went wrong. From now on, it was just him and his pokémon.

Ash walked forward into the building, the door sliding open for him with, and stepping into the large and open foray, the smell of flowers and food filling his nostrils, a great change from the smog outside. The teen scanned the area and noticed two counters in the front, the larger one in the middle had a red and white pokéball sign hanging over it, while a smaller one on the side had a similar sign but with the colours blue and yellow. "Right… they merged pokémarts with the centers…" the trainer nearly forgot about that tidbit, it was something the pokémon league experimented with in the Kalos region supposedly, it proved convenient and cost effective, no longer needing to keep multiple buildings open. So their now implementing it everywhere else.

Ash shook his head at that, well it worked well for him and every other trainer. They can heal pokémon, train in the training fields outside, eat and sleep for free, and now get their supplies in just one building. Amazing! He walked up to the larger counter that was manned by pink haired woman and her chansey, the caretaker of the pokémon kingdom. "Hello, nurse…" the teen scrunched up his eyes to read the tag on her uniform. "Joy! I'd like to get my pokémon checked out and a room for one please! Oh! I'd like to use one of your video phones!" he reminded himself, he promised mom that he'd call her when he arrived, hopefully he'll have enough time to call Oak too while his pokémon are healing up.

Joy opened her mouth to speak but quickly covered her mouth, has if she suddenly recognized him. "I know you! Two trainers came by with their pokémon, a growlithe and poliwag respectively, earlier today. They described what you looked like, it was very generous of you to help them like that," she said with smile, it was a good thing the two of them had a detailed description of him or else she would have never have noticed.

Ash let out a laugh at that, it was good hearing the two made it safe and sound, it probably was a very traumatic experience for them. "Well, I kinda did it for selfish reason, sorta. I wanted to catch the pokémon who was doing it, which was a murkrow. I caught him, though he's not so bad afterall. Comparatively to most of them," the laugh turned more into a nervous chuckle, his new pokémon did assault two pokémon to steal some shiny things after all. He also forgot to get those item back, lost himself in the excitement of his first catch… oops!

"Well, I don't judge pokémon. I help them no matter their background!" The nurse promised, her assistant waddling back with a tray that had six circular indents in them. "Just place your pokémon here and provide your trainer ID," she explained, giving her chansey a pat on the head for its initiative.

Ash nodded at the request, grabbing the pokéballs on his belt and expanding them to their regular size, placing both on the tray. With his hands now free, he dug through his pockets until he finally pulled out the plastic card and placed it on the counter, sliding it onto Joy's side.

The nurse picked it up and inserted it into a slot on the computer beside her, eyes scanning the information being displayed on the monitor before the machine spat out the card. "Oh! Your from Pallet town? Oak is a big celebrity in the world and you live in the same town. Anywho! Here's your ID back and…" she opened a drawer and pulled out a key with the number three on it. "Your room key! Video phones are to the right of the cafeteria entrance. We'll let you know when your pokémon are fully healed. Please enjoy your stay here!" she finished, handing Ash the key to his room and his ID card while chansey picked up the tray before walking off to a sliding door behind the counter.

Ash returned the smile before walking away from the counter, heading towards the video phones she point out, the smell of cooked foods pouring out of the cafeteria has he got closer. He walked into one of the booths, the video phones were surrounded by wooden walls meant to give people privacy. He grabbed the receiver, holding it up to his ear, and dialed up the number of his mom, taking a seat on the stool and stared at the black screen while waiting for the call to go through. Hopefully she was home, he could never hold a conversation with Mr. Mime for the love of him.

After a few seconds, the screen lit up and the image of his mother appeared on screen, she had her usual attire but wore an apron and had a spatula in her free hand. "Baby! Oh it's so good to see you! Your already in Viridian city? Your father couldn't make it there in a single day! Though he was never good with direction and too stubborn to ask, hehe," she giggled out, thinking about her husband, still off on his pokémon journey, at least he was responsible enough to transfer money to his family.

Ash had a wide smile on his face at seeing her, it wasn't even a day but he already missed her, though it was only natural a child would miss their parent. "Thanks! It was quite a trip though! I caught a murkrow, he was badly hurt but still put up a stiff fight, it's gonna be a great addition to the team!" he boasted, confident that his new teammate will pull his weight and much more.

Delia nodded, a proud smile at her face at her son catching his very first pokêmon, even more so that it wasn't the common pidgeys and ratattas. "That's great, hun! Seems your journey is off to a great start!" she congratulated, however something offscreen caught at her attention and the sound of boiling water became prevalent in the background. "Shoot! The stew is pouring out of the pot! Gotta go, hunny! Remember to change your underwear!" she said before the line cut off, leaving behind a black screen.

 _At least she said that in a private call…_ Ash moaned mentally at her final statement, did she think he was still a little boy? Though, they say a son will always be their parents little boy. Well, her early departure did workout in his favor though, he had plenty time to call up Oak. He dialed up the number of his lab and waited, listening carefully in case he was called to retrieve his pokémon. The screen lit up once more, revealing the aging professor and he was looking far better than the last time he saw him, the bags under his eyes were gone and so was the redness in his eyes. Overall, he looked well rested and it made him appear younger than how old he was. "Sup, old man! How was your nap?" the teen asked casually, a wide grin at seeing the professor that was nearly his own grandpa in all but name and blood.

Oak returned the grin with a chuckle, somewhat surprised to hear from the boy so soon. But, it was certainly a pleasant one. "It was wonderful, my boy! I just woke up an hour ago and I'll be heading to your home for dinner tonight," the professor finished with a content sigh, Delia might have made him stay up all night and most of the morning making calls, but the four course meal she was going to provide was well worth it. "So how are you, Ash? Calling from Viridian it seems. You've made great time, none of the others have even arrived yet," he congratulated his achievement.

Ash was surprised he was the only one to make it, he could understand Gary due to the fact he needed to heal his pokémon back to health after their battle, but he at least expected Henry and Leaf to have arrived. If they didn't get here soon, it will be dark out and they'll probably have to camp outside. "Good to know. Anyway, I caught a pokémon! A murkrow!" the teen told the man excitedly, expecting the same congratulations from his mother from him.

Instead, Oak merely nodded in his head, as if he already knew that he caught the pokémon. "Oh, I know my boy. It's quite rare to find murkrow on route one, and it has super luck. Quite a useful ability to have," the professor told him, seemingly knowing more about Ash's new pokémon than Ash himself.

Ash was stunted, he didn't even know it had that ability, forgetting to scan his new pokémon in the excitement. Though, it would explain how quickly certain battles were when using him, a few times ending the battle in a single blow. "How'd you know that?" the teen asked confused, did he have someone spying on him? Ash turned his neck to glance behind him, seeing a boy behind him waiting to use the booth, suspicious…

Oak laughed at the sudden paranoia he inspired in the boy. "Your pokémon,s information is uploaded to me when you captured him, via your pokédex. Don't worry, your pokémon's strengths and weaknesses are safe in my hands," he reassured the boy with a smile, Ash letting out a relieved sigh at the promise of confidentiality. "It was good hearing from you, Ash. But I have to go, it's about dinner time," the professor said with a grin, rubbing his hands together before the screen went blank, leaving behind a confused teen.

Everybody talking about eating and I'm still not gonna… Ash thought grumpily, putting the receiver back and leaving the booth, allowing the other boy to use it first. He wanted to get some training in before he ran out of sunlight, random pokémon battles was good for experience but it didn't give consist growth to his pokémon physics and skills like a training regime. He pulled out his pokédex and turned it on, flipping through its functions until opening up 'my pokémon' function, which allowed him to see his pokémon moves and abilities without scanning them.

 _Rockruff can learn bite, howl, and rock throw early. Murkrow knows peck, astonish, pursuit, haze, and wing attack. Learnable moves are night shade and assurance. He is, well a he, and his ability is super luck. Just like Oak said._ Ash read mentally, he couldn't do his preferred physical training he had in mind because it was going to be dark soon, but he had move training to do instead. Rockruff needed more moves to diversify her very simplistic moveset at the moment, a glaring weakness she currently had. Rock throw would give her a ranged attack as well as a much needed rock move, howl as a means to give her moves more power, and bite to hit anything her tackle ain't effect against. Murkrow didn't have that problem, a different training method would be better than the move oriented training for his starter.

"Ash Ketchum, please come to the front desk to retrieve your pokémon!" A voice boomed around the room from the speakers, knocking out the teen on his thoughts of training.

 _Good timing!_ Ash thought, pocketing his pokédex and quickly made his way to the counter, seeing his two pokémon on top of the counter, nurse Joy standing behind them. Once rockruff caught sight of himself, she leaped off the counter and charged towards him, knocking over a few trainers in her mad dash. She jumped into the air at him, getting caught in his waiting hands. "I'm guessing you missed me, uh girl?" Ash asked the rhetorical question, rockruff answering by licking his nose electing a chuckle out of him.

"It seems your pokémon is quite fond of you," she giggled out, murkrow taking flight off the desk before landing on Ash's shoulder, his talons digging into the fabric of his jacket slightly. "They were quite startled when they didn't see you, luckily chansey calmed them down before any damage could occur. First time shock is more common than you think," she reassured him, it took time for pokémon to fully adjust to the trainer lifestyle. The nurse quickly hurried off after that, to assist the increasing number of trainers to arrive.

Ash gently placed rockruff on the ground, giving one last pat on the head before addressing them. "Alright guys, time for us to do some training. We only got a few hours of daylight so let's use it! After that, we eat," he told them, mentally grimacing at the final sentence, he was already hungry but he'll suffer to make sure his pokémon are ready for their future battles. He'll just sneak one of his mom's sandwiches while they weren't looking…

Ash turned and headed back outside to use the training fields, hopefully it wasn't too occupied.

Ash's body bounced on the mattress of his bed when he jumped on it, a Dragon Ball Z manga in hand. Rockruff laid at the foot of the bed, curled up and quietly snoring, while murkrow rested on a bird stand to the right of the door, every room coming with a stand for flying types. The training had been tiring, but fruitful.

Much of the focus of the training was on rockruff, her lackluster moveset being the main issue. She made significant gains. She learned bite the quickest, due to the fact it was the simplest move, the main trick being gathering negative energy in her teeth to execute the attack, rather than just performing a regular old bite. Murkrow, already knowing a dark type attack, begrudgingly helped her learn how to manifest the energy after some persuasion from Ash. Howl was also picked up relatively quickly, growl was the opposite howl, using sound to decrease an opponent's attack while howl did the opposite increasing the attacking power of the user.

However, rock throw was something she still couldn't use properly yet. She could technically use the attack, gathering rocky materials from the area around her than pressing them together to make larger rocks. Sadly, she couldn't create rocks larger than pebbles and couldn't lob them with enough speed to actually hurt, even murkrow didn't flinch when hit by them and he was flying type. Even bite wasn't a total success, it was lacking in the power department, it still hurt and did damage but she needed to get used to the attack before she could use it to its full potential.

The second part of their training was dodge training, to help hone their reflexes so they could quickly react to attacks even without his commands. He and rockruff threw a flurry of rocks at murkrow in the air, the darkness pokémon trying his best to avoid the projectiles while staying reasonably close to the action. Rockruff underwent the same training, with him throwing rocks at a distance while murkrow stayed close and tried attacking her with a flurry of weakened peck attacks. This went on for three hours none stop, the sun went down an hour before but the group kept going nonetheless, nurse Joy had to come get them.

After such a long training regime, the group was absolutely exhausted and starved once they made it into the cafeteria, which was luckily empty. By the time they left for their room an hour later, the table they sat on could barely hold the weight of the empty plates they left behind in their wake. The two pokémon instantly fell asleep once they entered the room while Ash had to prepare for bed, he wasn't going to fall asleep in his sweat. Grabbing his green pajamas and his toothbrush, he headed to one of four bathrooms the center had, which the occupants had to share. Luckily, it was so late, everyone was already in bed, meaning he had free reign.

After a long shower, a change of clothes, and a quick brushing of his teeth, he headed back into his room, turning off the hallway lights before entering. He snuggled up in his bed, turned on the lamp on the bedside table, and opened the book to his manga, the first book in the series. What better way to head to bed than reading your favourite manga?

Before he could read the second page, it suddenly went pitch black in the room, only the moonlight coming in through the room's window that illuminated the room, though not by much. Ash moved his hand to the lamp, trying his best to feel out the button to turn it on and off, eventually find it and pressing the button twice. Nothing. He pressed it several more times but the light didn't come back on, he only received a clicking noise for his efforts. He let out an annoyed groan at that, shifting his legs to the side of the bed and getting up, sliding on a pair of slippers onto his feet.

 _Did they do budget cut on electricity too?_ Ash thought annoyed, quietly making his way around the bed, trying his best to not awaken his slumbering pokémon. He passed the window to his room but suddenly stopped, something catching his eyes. Or lack of something. What happen to all the lights? The teen thought confused, looking out the window to see absolute darkness, every building was dark, not even a single window in the city's massive skyscrapers had light shine in them. Even the street lights were off, only the light from cars in the distance could be said. Was this a citywide blackout?

Suddenly, his bedroom lamp came back to life, more like whimpered to life, the light weaker than before and flickering slightly. "The center must have a backup generator or something," he told himself, the lights outside were still down. Something wasn't right, the night sky was clear with not a single cloud around, so it wasn't the weather that did this and the week as been pretty dry with no rain. Best go ask Joy, she might know something.

Ash walked over to rockruff before bending over, tapping the top of her head with a finger, the puppy pokémon opening one eye to look at him. "Something ain't right, I need you to come with me," he explained, getting a lazy nod of acknowledgment from her has she slowly got up, uncurling herself and stretching her tired body with a yawn. He smiled and quickly stood back up, repeating the process with murkrow, though the darkness pokémon was more grumpy at being awaken than his starter. The dark/flying type jumped onto his shoulder, using it as a perch, before giving him a tired nod.

With his pokémon in tow, he opened up his bedroom door and looked into the dark hallway, it seemed empty. Ash took a few steps into the hallway and turned on the lights, the hallway lights weakly starting up providing little light, it was better than nothing though. The group walked towards the stairs leading downstairs and slowly descended down them, but stopping when they felt the building shake slightly before suddenly going quiet again. "What was that?" he asked his pokémon, only getting helpless shrugs of the shoulders in response. The group cautiously continued downwards until they reached the bottom, opening the door that lead to the foray of the center, coming across a startling sight.

"Come on, Pinky. Just give us the keys to the back and we'll promise that our pokémon won't rough you up," A magenta haired woman threatened the nurse and her pokémon assistant, a serpentine pokémon circling around the duo, baring its fangs threateningly at them. A meowth circled around her as well, its sharp claws extended and grinding on the floor menacingly, as if daring her to try and make a move

"No! You thieves are going to steal all the injured pokémon! I won't let you have them!" Joy cried out, wrapping an arm around her chansey and holding her close, despite her brave words she was obviously scared.

"Please be reasonable, are a bunch of strangers pokémon really worth bodily harm? Please consider quickly, my partner isn't too patient," A blue haired man arrogantly demanded, a purple sac pokémon floating around him spewing foul gases to float about, the foul stench not phasing the man.

Before the nurse could respond, a shout of 'Tackle!' and 'wing attack' caught everyone off guard. Suddenly, murkrow slammed a glowing wing into koffing, sending the pokémon flying into meowth knocking both of them onto the floor. Soon after, rockruff slammed her entire body into the head of ekans, causing the serpent pokémon head to snap back stumble back a good foot, freeing nurse joy from the surrounding pokémon. "Good work you guys! Nurse Joy, you al-" Ash asked but noticed the nurse and pokémon disappearing from sight, the sound of a heavy metal door closing echoing throughout the foray.

"Oh great! She's gonna alert the cops and they'll get here soon! Months of planning botched by some brat who doesn't know his bedtime!" the magenta haired woman shouted in frustration, her red eyes glaring angrily at Ash and his pokémon, if looks could kill, the teen would be dead already.

Her blue haired compatriot placed a hand on her shoulder. "Oh Jessie? look on the bright side of things. I've never saw that little brown pokémon before, I'm sure we can catch a high price for it. We won't leave tonight completely empty handed," he explained, letting go of the woman's shoulder and giving the teen a cruel look that promised pain for trainer.

Jessie noticeably calmed down at his words, nodding at the logic of his words. "True. That's why I like you James, always seeing a silver lining to things," she looked over at their opponent and smiled at him. "Kid, your going to learn the hard way why you shouldn't mess with Team Rocket!" she shouted at him, only receiving a glare in return from the boy.

 **Chapter Ends-**

 **Ash gained a new partner in Murkrow but will he able to overcome the rocket duo? Or will his dream come to an end before it could truly begin?**

 **Find out next time on Pokémon ZZZZZZ!**

 **Welp, this chapter ended up way longer than I thought it was going to be. Anyway, I just wanted to warn you guys the chapters ain't gonna be coming out this quickly from now on, I've been on vacation but will be heading back home soon. So between work and writing my second story along with this one, updates will be much slower, unfortunately.**

 **Anyway, I hope you enjoy the read!**


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